Chapter 2
A little while later, somewhere between a dream of him and Rachel dancing on a cloud in the rain and one of a Zombie apocalypse in Lima, Mike woke up and realized that he was still on the Berry couch wrapped in a blanket around Rachel's tiny frame. He sat up a little, not quite wanting to wake Rachel, and yet needing to stretch the pain out of his cramped body. As he was situating himself, Hiram Berry appeared in the door of the living room with a mug of coffee and a smirk on his face. Without a word, he handed the mug to Mike and disappeared around the corner into what Mike remembers to be the kitchen. He enjoys the coffee, noting that the soy milk brings out the nutty flavor of the roasted beans and thinks to himself that there must be something to the vegan thing if all of the food is really this good. He then also realizes that he has been staring at Rachel watching her sleep on his lap as his fingers run lightly through her hair, and despite the cute little smile of peacefulness on her face and the one that had worked its way onto Mike's, he thinks about how this could have been him and Tina and once again feels that squeezing in his chest at the thought of her and Finn.
He sighs louder than he means to and suddenly Rachel is awake and blinking the sleep from her eyes in a confusing manner. He can see the moment of remembrance on her face because in the next moment she is beaming a signature Rachel Berry smile at him, wishing him a good morning in a raspy gravelly tone that should be illegal for all that it turns Mike on. She then reaches for the coffee in Hiram's outstretched hand-seriously, how does he do it?- and takes a few moments to enjoy her coffee.
Leroy takes that moment to make an appearance and all four spend the next hour enjoying egg-free omelets and pancakes. Mike enjoys the morning of easy talk and the warmth of family bonding times that his own family had been lacking ever since his father got that promotion last year and spent most of his week at the office and the weekends schmoosing big wigs at the golf course. Around lunch time, Rachel drives Mike home and he spends the rest of his day fighting a growing attraction to Rachel, wallowing over the loss of Tina and playing Halo online with Puck and Artie and Sam. He ends up following his parents to his Aunt's house for lack of anything better to do and also because he knows that if left to his own devices, he'll end up eating all of the ice cream in the house drowning himself in a pool of self-pity. The only thing that gets him through the weekend of family togetherness and awkward questions about his role in the musical and if his 'plans' on attending Harvard are any different now that he is an artist, are the meaningless, yet precious texts Rachel has been sending him since he left her house. Telling him about her day, commenting on all of the people in her dance class and random thoughts he knows she is only sharing to keep his mind off of Tina. He manages to avoid one of his cousin's awkward questions about Tina and if that was who he had been texting the whole time.
By the time he gets back to Lima late monday night, thoughts of Tina and the subsequent ache in his chest had lessened and he went to sleep far less anxious about school the next day.